Not Applicable.
The bottle holder of this invention is adapted to use by a person, usually a baby three to six months old, either lying on its back or sitting up, either on its own or being held. As used by an invalid or someone who wants to drink while using both hands for some other purpose, it will ordinarily be used in a situation in which the torso of the user is generally upright. When used by a small baby, the baby can push the bottle away if the baby does not want to feed, but can be retrieved by the baby when it does want the bottle. It is easy to adjust, both heightwise and angularly while connected to the baby, both for the convenience of the baby and for avoiding air pockets in the bottle as the level of liquid in the bottle gets low.
In any event, the device of this invention permits the use of one or both hands for purposes other than holding a bottle. The problem of providing such a holder has been addressed for many years. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,880,950, 3,117,759 and 4,405,106. An object of this invention is to provide a holder more adaptable to and versatile in use than holders known heretofore.
In accordance with this invention generally stated, a bottle holder is provided with a torso-engaging part, a first segment hingedly connected to the torso-engaging part, a second segment mounted on the first segment in such a way as to be selectively extendable from the first segment, and a bottle gripping segment hingedly connected to the second segment. The hinged segments are arranged to be held in any desired angular position, within limits. In the preferred embodiment, the first and second segments are made of a plastic of sufficient resiliency to permit knuckles formed in the plastic to be squeezed against knuckles with which they are interleaved, frictionally to hold the segments in the desired angular position. The second segment is provided with rods extending into passages in the first segment. Helical springs bias the rods toward unextended position. A spring biased prop or rest is hingedly mounted on the first segment, the springs serving the double function of holding the rest in place on the first segment and cushioning the rest as it engages the chest of the wearer. The bottle gripping segment in the preferred embodiment has a fixed arcuate part hinged to the second segment and a movable arcuate part hinged to one end of the fixed arcuate part and spring biased in a direction toward the first arcuate part, so as frictionally to engage the bottle, and to accommodate different sizes of bottles.